Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT / Kay Burke, Chief Nursing Informatics Officer at UCSF Health Informatics
Transcript
- 0:00- Prepare to dive into the forefront
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- 0:27- Welcome to the Becker's Healthcare Podcast, made
- 0:30for the people who power US healthcare.
- 0:31I'm Molly Gamble at Becker's,
- 0:33and today I am sitting down with K Burke
- 0:34to learn more about the representation of nursing
- 0:37and informatics and leadership in the field.
- 0:40Kay is the Chief Nursing Informatics Officer
- 0:43for UCSF Health Informatics.
- 0:46Kay, welcome to the podcast. Thanks
- 0:47so much for being my guest.
- 0:49How are you today? And where does podcast find you?
- 0:53- Hi, Molly. Thanks so much
- 0:54for inviting me to be your guest.
- 0:56I am doing fabulous.
- 0:57It's, it's a rare 70 degree day in San Francisco,
- 1:01and so I am looking forward
- 1:02to a beautiful, relaxing weekend.
- 1:05How are you?
- 1:06- I'm doing well. Uh,
- 1:07we are about 30 degrees different here in Chicago.
- 1:10Um, but , you know, we've had a very mild winter,
- 1:12so I can't complain now.
- 1:14Do you know what I mean? Um, yeah, we've had it pretty good.
- 1:18You know, you mentioned San Francisco.
- 1:20For listeners who might be less familiar
- 1:22with UCSF Health Informatics,
- 1:25can you share a few key facts about the organization just
- 1:28to help our listeners better reacquaint themselves?
- 1:32Yeah,
- 1:34- Absolutely.
- 1:35So, I'll, I'll start with sort of UCSF as an organization,
- 1:38and then I'll delve into our informatics department.
- 1:41Um, so UCSF, which I always assume everyone knows, stands
- 1:45for the University of California San Francisco,
- 1:47but just in case, wanted to kind of spell that out.
- 1:50Um, so we're an academic health system.
- 1:53We serve the Greater Bay Area
- 1:55and, uh, UCSF has, uh, three core mission areas, um,
- 2:00that includes health
- 2:01or the clinical care delivery arm, which is
- 2:03where I'm housed, uh, as well as research and education.
- 2:06So we as an organization are really committed to ensuring
- 2:09that those are all interconnected and aligned.
- 2:12It's really part of who we are and what we do.
- 2:14And, uh, we have several campuses across, um, San Francisco,
- 2:18and we actually are expanding our
- 2:20footprint, which is really exciting.
- 2:22We just acquire two amazing community hospitals.
- 2:24So that's, that's a bit about UCSF
- 2:26and, uh, health informatics is, it's really kind
- 2:30of a key function, I think, within the health system.
- 2:33Um, we're actually part of information technology.
- 2:37Um, that's our division though we work really,
- 2:39really closely with, with operations
- 2:41and the clinical departments.
- 2:42And our portfolio has several verticals, one of which,
- 2:45of course is nursing informatics, which is what I oversee.
- 2:49Uh, we have a, an incredible team of informaticists.
- 2:52We, uh, work very closely with the technical analysts, uh,
- 2:56as well as, as I mentioned, our clinical colleagues
- 2:58and, you know, not just nurses,
- 3:00but, uh, nursing informatics supports,
- 3:03advanced practice providers, including nurse practitioners
- 3:06as well as allied health professionals such as pt, ot,
- 3:09you know, speech register, registered dieticians,
- 3:13social workers, and the like.
- 3:14Um, and, you know, given that all
- 3:17of these roles use digital tools
- 3:19and information systems to do their daily jobs
- 3:21and carry out their, you know,
- 3:24respective professional practice, they,
- 3:26they really require the support
- 3:28and service of informatics professionals.
- 3:31And we do a lot, you know, some,
- 3:33some describe informatics kind of as the bridge
- 3:36between clinicians and it,
- 3:37and we, we have a, a leg in both worlds.
- 3:40And, um, and
- 3:42because of this, we understand the clinical workflows
- 3:44and the problems that need, need solving, you know, whether
- 3:47that's an electronic health record design solution
- 3:50or, you know, user adoption
- 3:52or the implementation of, of large scale projects.
- 3:56And what we do is we help ensure that the,
- 3:57the IT application experts really have the requirements
- 4:00needed to, to build said solution.
- 4:03And so everyone on my team is an rn, you know,
- 4:06most are board certified in nursing informatics.
- 4:08And, uh, so yeah, that's, uh, that's our story.
- 4:12- Okay. I, you just covered that very concisely,
- 4:15but UCSF, I mean, when you talked about some of the,
- 4:19the three arms and then research being one of them, um,
- 4:22the research coming out of UCSF is, is such a long list
- 4:26of big milestones and discoveries.
- 4:28I, I think chronic pain is a condition stems from UCSF
- 4:33research, uh, so much advancements toward, uh, AIDS
- 4:37and treatment and identifying symptoms of aids.
- 4:39So, I mean, I encourage listeners if they're less familiar
- 4:42to, to check in, look into that
- 4:44because, um, you summarized it really well.
- 4:47Kay. But behind the scenes, I know that it's a,
- 4:50it's a really long roster of different achievements
- 4:52and milestones from your research.
- 4:55- Yeah, I appreciate you saying that.
- 4:57I, um, I myself am incredibly impressed by,
- 5:01and humbled by the body of research that comes out of UCSF,
- 5:06the funding that we have been able to achieve to
- 5:10perpetuate incredible research.
- 5:12I always say that, you know,
- 5:14it always feels like we're sort, you know, uh,
- 5:16curing cancer in the backyard.
- 5:18Uh, there are people that come from around the world
- 5:21to be part of clinical trials and receive treatment at UCSF.
- 5:24So I appreciate that, um, emphatic point that you made,
- 5:27because sometimes I,
- 5:29I undersell the research endeavors at UCSF,
- 5:32and, um, I do think it's, uh,
- 5:34it's worth noting. So thank you for saying that.
- 5:36- Yeah, and I, I wasn't implying underselling at all.
- 5:38It was more in recent conversations,
- 5:40and I, I even undersell just now.
- 5:42I mean, when I said advancements around treatment of aids,
- 5:44I mean, UCSF co-discovered aids, so, um,
- 5:47some landmark developments there.
- 5:49But, um, you know, Kay, I wanted to dig into
- 5:52and double click on your role with nursing and informatics.
- 5:55Nursing long been underrepresented in the field
- 5:59of healthcare informatics.
- 6:00And then you have nurses playing such a crucial
- 6:02role in patient care.
- 6:03They have so many valuable insights into healthcare
- 6:06processes that can go overlooked quite often in,
- 6:09in the development
- 6:10and implementation of informatics solutions.
- 6:14How have you seen this change, either at UCSF specifically,
- 6:18or if you take a step back in the industry at large?
- 6:23- Yeah, I mean, it's, it's a very interesting observation.
- 6:27Um, I certainly share it.
- 6:29I, I have seen this change over the years
- 6:31and, um, I mean, I'll share with you a little bit about my
- 6:35personal, um, journey in the field.
- 6:37Uh, so when I first got into informatics back in 2009,
- 6:42often there were CMIO roles,
- 6:44and in some cases, you know,
- 6:46additional medical informatics leaders like associates,
- 6:49CMIOs and directors of medical informatics,
- 6:52but rarely, if ever A-C-N-I-O.
- 6:55And this was the case when I started.
- 6:56And, uh, while I was on
- 6:59an incredible nursing informatics team,
- 7:01there was not A-C-N-I-O at the organization, uh, you know,
- 7:05doctors, nurses, pharmacists, we all worked
- 7:08on EHR implementation projects together,
- 7:12but the leaders were almost always positioned.
- 7:16So when I first became A-C-N-I-O myself,
- 7:18and this was in 2014, I was excited.
- 7:22I was glad that the organization had A-C-N-I-O role.
- 7:25I was thrilled to be afforded the
- 7:26opportunity to be in the role.
- 7:29Um, my role reported to the CMIO,
- 7:32and, you know, while he was an incredible partner, the,
- 7:35the org chart illustrated who's driving the
- 7:38bus, so to speak.
- 7:39And so therefore, to your point,
- 7:41nursing was underrepresented, not just in the field
- 7:44of healthcare informatics,
- 7:45but in decision making that impacted nurses themselves
- 7:49since there were not as many, if any,
- 7:51at all seats at the leadership table for nurses.
- 7:54Uh, so when I started here at UCSF, which was in 2017,
- 7:59I was hired as the inaugural CNIO.
- 8:02So there had never been A-C-N-I-O before.
- 8:04Um, and subsequently no recognized, you know,
- 8:07nursing informatics team.
- 8:09And it took a lot as it as it does, right,
- 8:11to build a program and a team, especially while also
- 8:15educating the organization about the value
- 8:18of nursing informatics.
- 8:20And it is tough to constantly try to demonstrate value
- 8:24of your role and your team's role
- 8:26and building business cases for additional positions
- 8:30and, you know, upskilling new hires
- 8:32and delivering on key priorities.
- 8:34Um, but I will say
- 8:37now we are well positioned in the organization
- 8:39to be at the table, right?
- 8:40To help formulate decisions and best practices
- 8:44and technology design
- 8:46and partner with nurse executives to ensure
- 8:48that our clinicians are well supported
- 8:50and have the right tools and workflows to, to do their jobs.
- 8:53Um, but I will say,
- 8:55I'm gonna just say a quick story, if that's okay, .
- 8:58Yeah, absolutely. It's actually, it's this torch
- 9:01that I carry often, um, externally.
- 9:04And, uh, so recently at a, at a conference, I spoke
- 9:06to an audience of about a hundred plus or minus, uh, CNOs
- 9:10and, and CE Chief nurse executive.
- 9:13And at one point I asked for a show of hands, I said,
- 9:17how many of you have A-C-M-I-O at your organization?
- 9:21And most raised their hands. Mm-Hmm, .
- 9:24And then I asked, you know, of you who raised your hands?
- 9:27How many of you also have A-C-N-I-O?
- 9:31And honestly, Molly most hands dropped. Mm.
- 9:34And then I charged them all.
- 9:37I said, it is very important
- 9:39that you advocate for this role.
- 9:41I mean, it is a matter of, of inequity at this point.
- 9:44I mean, at any organization, there are more nurses
- 9:47and allied health professionals than doctors, right?
- 9:50So then I said, inequitable representation,
- 9:54if not challenged by you, is perpetuated by you.
- 9:58Mm-Hmm, . Mm-hmm. . And there was
- 9:59like, certainly discomfort .
- 10:01But, you know, at the end of, at the end of the conference,
- 10:03there was a line out the door, you know, of CNEs
- 10:05and CNOs who were, you know, wanting to talk to me about,
- 10:09like how to justify the, you know,
- 10:12how do you build the business case of, you know,
- 10:14having A-C-N-I-O at your organization?
- 10:16Mm-Hmm, . So, um,
- 10:18and I actually did this one other quick, quick story.
- 10:21I was actually a summit hosted by a vendor.
- 10:23And, you know, the, the opening keynote was a CEO.
- 10:26And he said he proudly introduced the first new ever CMIO.
- 10:31So imagine what I did.
- 10:33I caught him at the coffee break,
- 10:35and I was like, congratulations for hiring A-C-M-I-O.
- 10:39That's great. And I was like, so where's your CNIO?
- 10:43And yes, rhetorical for sure, our little, little flippant,
- 10:46but catch my draft.
- 10:48It just, it doesn't, just doesn't make sense to me.
- 10:51You know? So, you know, it's, it's an ongoing, um,
- 10:57advocacy, I won't say battle 'cause 'cause it's not a fight.
- 11:00I mean, I, I will say that, you know, partnerships
- 11:04with medical informatics professionals, it's very key.
- 11:06It's not an us and them, it's not Mm-Hmm.
- 11:08binary, um, you know,
- 11:11effective informatics teams,
- 11:12teams rely on collaborative work and, and relationships.
- 11:16Um, it just, uh, continues to be, um,
- 11:21this journey that does not yet have,
- 11:26uh, an end point.
- 11:28But I think we c nios, nursing informatics professionals,
- 11:31nurses themselves are all kind
- 11:33of continuing to march the march.
- 11:34So we'll get there. .
- 11:38- I think that's such an important perspective. Kay.
- 11:39You know, I think health systems
- 11:41and hospitals, you saw, I mean, decades ago,
- 11:44it was typically a hospital administrator right at the
- 11:47top of the organization.
- 11:49A lot of this has changed. Now,
- 11:50the organizational structures and titles and positions,
- 11:54and there's some that are fixtures, I think they're out,
- 11:56they're, they're given at most organizations,
- 11:59what I've always been more intrigued by is,
- 12:01what you just touched on, is these roles that are emerging.
- 12:04Um, some organizations, it starts off with just a few
- 12:07and what, whatever the title may be,
- 12:09but it's this sweet spot of time where it's not yet a given,
- 12:13it's not yet widespread.
- 12:15And I think, like you just indicated, there's a lot
- 12:17of hard work there, um, in terms
- 12:19of helping organizations move forward, progress and,
- 12:24and better have representation for some really,
- 12:26really key professionals in their organizations.
- 12:30Um, and it also, like you said, it takes,
- 12:31there's soft skills there that come up, whether it's,
- 12:34you know, trying to help people
- 12:36and bring them along in a way that isn't shaming them
- 12:38or isn't, you know, tt
- 12:40but helping them see that congratulations,
- 12:43you have established the CMIO role.
- 12:45That is a huge accomplishment now ,
- 12:49you know, and keep it moving.
- 12:50Right, . Yeah.
- 12:51So I think it, it's really helpful that you touched on that.
- 12:54Let's talk about leadership in, in your position.
- 12:57I'm curious what you consider the special sauce, so to say.
- 13:01Uh, I use that term because sometimes when I ask about
- 13:05leadership, I, I'm striving to understand the traits
- 13:08beyond those universally important ones.
- 13:10You know, communication skills, listening, integrity.
- 13:13Um, what leadership traits
- 13:15or qualifications do you, are you really craving
- 13:19and do you think really hold exceptional significance in
- 13:22this position as CNIO?
- 13:25- Yeah, I mean, I, I love the special sauce term
- 13:29as an aside, despite being an SF for about six years,
- 13:32I am a newly minted in and out fan,
- 13:34and their special sauce is really worth pipe .
- 13:37- I, I, you put that together. Funny
- 13:39- .
- 13:40Um, but leadership is special sauce.
- 13:42It's, it is, I mean, all the things that you mentioned, it's
- 13:45communication and, you know, integrity, authenticity.
- 13:49Um, but I feel like a key characteristic
- 13:51of a successful informatics executive is really change
- 13:55management and relationship building.
- 13:57You know, like there's this proliferation of technology
- 14:01and digital tools in the clinical environment,
- 14:04and there's often resistance,
- 14:05or in some cases, fear, to be honest with you.
- 14:08And nurses in particular don't want
- 14:10to be technology experts.
- 14:12It's not what they went to nursing school for.
- 14:14They wanna take care of patients and new ways
- 14:17or different ways of using technology or innovating to do.
- 14:21So. It's, it's not always popular, right?
- 14:25It's, it's, it's really incredibly important
- 14:27to like empower nurses
- 14:29and nurse leaders to be part of, of change.
- 14:32And, um, so trust is, I think of, you know,
- 14:35paramount importance
- 14:37and building those trusting relationships is not
- 14:39always an easy feat.
- 14:41Um, it's funny, I know it sounds cheesy,
- 14:44but I often start presentations with this quote from,
- 14:48you know, Angela McBride.
- 14:49And it's, it talks about, it says something like,
- 14:52there's no aspect of nursing that will be untouched
- 14:55by the informatics revolution that is in progress.
- 14:59But I like it because people need
- 15:02to be part of a revolution.
- 15:03You know, they need to have avenues to contribute
- 15:06to digital transformation.
- 15:08And if you're, if you're A-C-N-I-O
- 15:10or a nursing informatics, you know, professional, you need
- 15:13to, you need to help create those inroads.
- 15:16And so that's why I think number one is change management
- 15:19and that relationship building
- 15:21and being trustworthy, that's
- 15:23probably the most critical secret sauce.
- 15:26Um, for CNI os, I'd say on the heels of
- 15:29that is, is strategy.
- 15:31So like, I'm also, often in my role, I'm one step ahead
- 15:35of the conversation, so I'm thinking proactively about the
- 15:39problems I'm hearing and the solutions
- 15:41that I can anticipate.
- 15:43You know, so like this informatics is a bridge, right?
- 15:46Between clinicians
- 15:47and it, so when we hear from clinicians
- 15:51or operations that, you know,
- 15:53fill in the blank is an issue, right?
- 15:55Uh, let's say an unfavorable quality trend
- 15:58or a patient safety issue,
- 16:01or throughput, bottleneck,
- 16:03whatever you're hearing in different committees and councils
- 16:06and forums, and then we can start to think through potential
- 16:10interventions that might be needed to solve for, you know,
- 16:14X problem that you just heard.
- 16:16And, and so I think being strategic, it, it's not unique to
- 16:20successful leaders right?
- 16:21Outside of informatics,
- 16:22but I do think it's particularly
- 16:26important in A-C-N-I-O role.
- 16:28So I would say two secret sauces.
- 16:31One, the change management and relationship building,
- 16:33and then probably, you know, being proactive
- 16:35and strategic. Mm-Hmm.
- 16:36- , what I'm also hearing there is when you
- 16:39talked about the, the,
- 16:40that great quote about the revolution, helping,
- 16:43helping your team be proactive in how technology can fit in.
- 16:48And they are more in the driver's seat of making those calls
- 16:51and connecting those dots versus simply reacting, right?
- 16:55I think so much of the anxiety around AI is
- 16:58that it's gonna be put to use in ways that will surprise us,
- 17:02or stun us or disappoint us, and we'll have to go back and,
- 17:06and fix it and admit we might have been wrong.
- 17:08But I think, Kay, what I'm picking up on you saying is
- 17:10that if people are follow along with you
- 17:13and thinking ahead in a similar way, they might be able
- 17:16to better have ideas about how technology and informatics
- 17:20and tools and AI can be adopted versus
- 17:24simply reacting to them after the fact.
- 17:26Is that, is that a fair read on things?
- 17:29- Absolutely. I mean, I love how you said dot connecting
- 17:31because, uh, I, I've heard
- 17:33that informaticists are expert dot connectors.
- 17:36Um, in fact, my CMIO, um, colleague
- 17:40and very, very close trusted partner, uh, at UCSF,
- 17:44he always says that we pour the coffee ,
- 17:47so dot connecting coffee pours.
- 17:49I think, um, it's also no one in a forum of
- 17:55clinical or operational leaders are asking
- 17:58for something like ai, right?
- 18:00There's, there's a need to demystify
- 18:04a capability such as ai.
- 18:06So when you're, as I was saying,
- 18:08you're hearing these problems
- 18:10and then you try to think about
- 18:12how you deliver solutions using, you know, a myriad
- 18:17of capabilities including ai.
- 18:19And so then when you come back with a suggested
- 18:22or recommended solution,
- 18:23and it happens to be ai,
- 18:26you get the buy-in, right?
- 18:29Because it's not like, okay, I'm gonna push AI
- 18:32or deliver AI on you.
- 18:33Mm. It's more I heard you
- 18:35mm-Hmm, , I heard what you said.
- 18:36I know this is a problem. This is a possible tool in the
- 18:39toolkit to solve your problem.
- 18:41It happens to be ai, you know what I mean?
- 18:43We, we ensure that there is, you know,
- 18:46ethical trustworthiness when we deliver ai.
- 18:48And it's sort of like just being able to help bring along
- 18:53your, um, your leaders at a healthcare institution,
- 18:58uh, and, and kind
- 18:59of essentially educating them along
- 19:01the way. Mm-Hmm. .
- 19:02- Mm-Hmm. - .
- 19:04- Okay. It's been so interesting catching up with you.
- 19:07And I, I really appreciate these glimpses
- 19:09into your work and your role.
- 19:10Do you have any closing thoughts for our listeners
- 19:12or a message you'd like to leave them with as we wind down?
- 19:17- Uh, yes. I just wanna say one thing.
- 19:19'cause I, I often share this at the closing of,
- 19:22of various kind of presentations with, certainly
- 19:25as I mentioned, informatics, the way
- 19:28that healthcare is digitally transforming
- 19:32this environment requires
- 19:33that we have nursing informatics professionals and teams
- 19:36and structures and roles like mine.
- 19:39But it also means that in addition
- 19:40to having nursing informatics leaders
- 19:43and specialists, we really need
- 19:45to start thinking about building out informatics
- 19:48competencies at the bedside to the professional nurse.
- 19:53Like, we need to embed informatics principles in
- 19:56undergraduate programs and graduate education.
- 19:59Like we need to create fellowships or champion programs,
- 20:02or whatever you call it, you know, communities of practice
- 20:05and development opportunities to understand informatics.
- 20:09Like it's not just about checking me,
- 20:11I have A-C-N-I-O at my institution box.
- 20:15It's, it's really about educating
- 20:16and enculturating every single clinician
- 20:18who touches a patient to be part of this sort of,
- 20:21you know, new world order.
- 20:24Mm-Hmm. of, you know, the future of healthcare
- 20:26and, um, the revolution,
- 20:28if you will, Mm-Hmm, .
- 20:29So I do think it's more than just having nursing informatics
- 20:32as a team or as you know, as roles, it's really kind
- 20:35of infusing informatics competencies at all levels
- 20:38of professional practice.
- 20:41- That's a, that's a great note to add end on.
- 20:43And I know that'll take the cooperation
- 20:45and collaboration of numerous stakeholders.
- 20:47You just hit on a few of them with higher education and,
- 20:49and different training programs,
- 20:51but a, a really important idea to close with.
- 20:54- Great. - Kay, thank you so much for being our guest.
- 20:58I hope we can catch up again soon.
- 21:00This has been Kay Burke, CNIO
- 21:03with UCSF health informatics.
- 21:06Kay. I just wish you continued success in your role
- 21:08and keep up the good fight with expanding
- 21:12CNIs at health systems across the us.
- 21:14I know it sounds like you're putting
- 21:15a lot of effort into that.
- 21:17And, uh, I hope you will continue
- 21:18and others will join you in that effort too.
- 21:20- Well, thanks, Molly. This has been super enjoyable.
- 21:23I really appreciate the invitation to join you this morning.
- 21:26- Likewise. Thank you so much. Kay.
- 21:28- Thanks. Have a great day. Bye.